Russia restarts a major gas pipeline and expands its Ukraine war goals

Thursday, July 21, 2022

by Linda Noakes

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Italy is plunged into political turmoil, the ECB is set to join the rate hike club, and the U.S. probes China's Huawei over equipment near missile silos

Today's biggest stories

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrives at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome, July 21, 2022

WORLD

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi handed in his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella after his unity government fell apart, plunging the country into political turmoil. We look at how the man dubbed 'Super Mario' was undone by political infighting.

Russia is resuming supplies of gas via a major pipeline to Europe, amid concerns Moscow would use its vast energy exports to push back against Western pressure over its invasion of Ukraine. The resumption of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline at reduced capacity comes after comments from Russia's foreign minister showed the Kremlin's goals had expanded during the five-month war. Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now.

Australia reported one of its highest daily death tolls from COVID while hospital admissions hovered near record levels, as authorities struggle to get ahead of highly contagious Omicron variants. The BA.4/5 variants are good at evading immune protection from vaccination or prior infection and have been driving a surge of new infections globally.

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss will battle it out to become Britain's next prime minister after they won the final lawmaker vote, setting up the last stage of the contest to replace Boris Johnson.

Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be officially nominated by his Workers Party today to run on October 2 against far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil's most polarized election in decades. With a double-digit lead in opinion polls, a Lula victory would represent an astounding come-back.

Former President Donald Trump, his wife Melania, Kimberly Guilfoyle, his sons Barron and Donald Jr. and his daughter Ivanka leave St. Vincent Ferrer Church during the funeral of Ivana Trump in New York City, July 20, 2022

U.S.

The U.S. congressional probe of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters wraps up its summer hearings with a prime-time presentation focused on the three hours of rage following the former president's raucous speech that day. Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon will ask a federal judge today to dismiss criminal charges alleging he willfully defied a subpoena by the committee.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced two bills to reform election laws, seeking to block a repeat of then-President Donald Trump's failed attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden. The legislation, among other things, would make clear that the vice president has only a ceremonial role in certifying election results.

A big Democratic Party fundraising group filed a complaint against the Federal Election Commission, accusing it of allowing Trump to break campaign finance law by spending political donations on a 2024 presidential bid he has yet to launch.

A Georgia law banning abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks, will take effect after a federal appeals court rejected a challenge to it by abortion providers. Meanwhile, Indiana Republican lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban abortion except in cases of rape, incest or medical emergency.

The Biden administration is investigating Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei over concerns that U.S. cell towers fitted with its gear could capture sensitive information from military bases and missile silos that the company could then transmit to China, people familiar with the matter said.

BUSINESS

The European Central Bank will raise interest rates for the first time in 11 years today with a bigger-than-flagged move seen as increasingly likely as policymakers fear losing control of runaway consumer price growth.

The U.S. Federal Reserve will opt for another 75 basis point rate hike rather than a larger move at its meeting next week to quell stubbornly-high inflation as the likelihood of a recession over the next year rises to 40%, a Reuters poll of economists found.

The Bank of Japan projected inflation to exceed its target this year in fresh forecasts, but maintained ultra-low interest rates and signaled its resolve to remain an outlier in a wave of global central bank policy tightening.

China's cybersecurity regulator fined Didi Global $1.2 billion, concluding a probe that forced the ride-hailing leader to delist from New York within a year of its debut and made foreign investors wary about China's tech sector.

Tesla reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit as a string of price increases on its electric vehicles helped offset production challenges caused by COVID lockdowns in China. Whether with humanoid robots or robot taxis, investors are still betting boss Elon Musk will change the world, says Breakingviews columnist Jonathan Guilford.

Britain's competition and aviation regulators warned airlines of potential enforcement action if travelers faced more flight disruptions and cancellations through the summer. The warning comes at a time of widespread disruption at airports caused by staff shortages, including long queues and canceled flights, as airlines struggle to keep up with a surge in demand.

Quote of the day

"Meta cannot succeed in India while leaving women behind"

Facebook's growth woes in India: too much nudity, not enough women

Video of the day

New York 'institute' dedicated to all things slime

The Sloomoo Institute hosts an enormous slime wall decorated by visitors, a 350-gallon slime lake, a glow-in-the-dark slime cave and more.

And finally…

Baidu unveils autonomous vehicle without steering wheel

China's search engine giant Baidu unveiled its new autonomous vehicle with a detachable steering wheel, with plans to put it to use for its robotaxi service in China next year.